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Gulf used the two-headed rushing attack of the shifty Austin Jackson and bruising T.J. Blount to get by Ridgewood 25-13 at Ram Booster Stadium.

"This week I took the offensive line back," Gulf coach Ken Holler said. "The linemen came up to me and said, 'Coach leave it to us' and I leaned on them tonight. They worked hard all week and most importantly were 3-0 now."

In the early going Ridgewood (0-3) scored on a Tim Tebow-like 9-yard jump pass from running back Cameron Rodriguez to tight end Max Livingstone to give the Rams a 7-0 lead. Rodriguez was bottled up all night and held to 67 yards on 21 attempts.

Gulf (3-0) answered with a Jackson (17 carries, 103 yards) 15-yard run to cut the lead to one point.

The Buccaneers got a break on a bad snap right before the half and capitalized off the good field position. Gulf quarterback Will Fulmer (4-of-14, 52 yards) hit tight end Nikola Visic on a 9-yard pass to put the Bucs up 12-7 at half.

After halftime Gulf ate up most of the third- and fourth-quarter clock by pounding it up the middle with Blount, who finished with 119 yards on 24 carries.

"They found a weakness and they exploited us," Ridgewood coach Kent Reed said. "We kind of stood there and gave them the opportunity to get 4 or 5 yards a carry there.

There is a reason why the air in Tampa Bay is filled with playoff talk. If Thursday night's 12-8 Bucs preseason win over the Jaguars is any indication, it's also going to be filled with footballs thrown by quarterback Jameis Winston.

TORONTO — Two pitches RHP Chris Archer didn't execute are the ones that stood out Thursday as Josh Donaldson hit them out of the park. But the two solo home runs aside, Archer turned in a sterling outing that went atop the pile of good pitching the Rays keep wasting.

CLEARWATER — Tracey Fritzinger has seen Tim Tebow play baseball a few times this year. The 40-year-old St. Petersburg resident went to two of his games against the Tampa Yankees, along with Joy, her little sister from Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.